


It's Noon Somewhere

by rosa_himmelblau



Category: Wiseguy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 02:43:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8731762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosa_himmelblau/pseuds/rosa_himmelblau
Summary: Vinnie disappears from Lynchboro.  Frank is not handling this well.





	

Roger listened to Frank rant about Vinnie's running out on him, disconnecting his mind, ignoring the meaning of the words and hearing only the anger and pain. He wanted to say, _you know, he's only been gone a day, not a lifetime, but for Frank that seemed to be beside the point. And what, for Frank, is the point? That he left at all, that he left the job, that he left Frank—oh, yeah, that was it—that he left Frank. Abandoned, deserted, left alone. That's what I'm hearing, a wounded heart crying out._  
  
It amazed Roger how easily people could deceive themselves when they wanted to—and Roger included himself in that group, make no mistake. _But this—this deception is monumental, Frank McPike's own personal cover-up of the truth to make absolutely one hundred percent sure he, Frank McPike never, ever sees it. When it starts peeking through, he hurls more anger at it. When it stares him in the face, he calls it by the wrong name. He **will not** see that Vince had been in love with Sonny Steelgrave even if Vince had told him flat out. What had Vince said? "It's not a secret, but telling Frank's about as useful as telling Sonny; he'd never hear me, even if I spelled it out. And I don't know that I want him to know . . . ." Well, that's fine, the two of them conspiring separately to preserve Frank's innocence. The world keeps turning and the job gets done. What else matters?_  
  
_Only now things have changed. The world has come to a grinding halt and the job is in danger of not getting done because the preservation of one lie is keeping Frank from facing another, at-this-moment frighteningly obvious truth: that he, Frank McPike, is in love with Vinnie Terranova._  
  
_Has to be. The only other explanation for his present behavior is a sudden psychotic snap. Vinnie's been gone less than twenty-four hours, he's a trained field agent, he knows how to take care of himself—I've seen mothers of abducted two-year-olds less bent out of shape. There are things we're just not facing here, Frank. Like why Vinnie cut-and-ran, and it wasn't because it's horrible to watch a man electrocute himself in your face. It's because it's unbearable to watch a man you love die by his own hand and know you bear some responsibility, even if it is legally sanctioned, morally approved, publicly validated responsibility. Those cold comforts are of the dry ice variety; they freeze you and burn you at the same time. So Vinnie loved Sonny and watched him die. Can you really be comparing what **you** saw to what **he** saw? And I don't really think he saw Stemkowski die, I'd bet the farm he saw Sonny again. But if you uncover that lie, the other one comes out too, doesn't it? They hinge on each other, because if you acknowledge Vinnie's relationship with Sonny, your feelings stop being a flash of fantasy you use to get off alone in your motel room at night and start being something that could be reciprocated. If Vinnie could love Sonny, and want him, Vinnie could love and want you. And that's pretty scary. It could change your life. And you think if you yell at it loud enough, you can make it go away—just like you used to think if you yelled at Vinnie loud enough you could keep him away. But he doesn't work like that. He yells back, and then he hugs and holds on. Arms' length doesn't exist in his vocabulary. I know, and I'm not even in love with him. **Thank God.**_  
  
For a second Roger felt achingly sorry for Frank, and then it was gone. _I wasn't sent here to play_ Can This Marriage Be Saved?, _I was sent to make sure nobody shoots you in the back while you're doing the job. And that's what I'm gonna do, and it's all I'm gonna do. We'll sort out this mess and you and Vinnie can sort out your own. I'm staying the hell out of it._  
  
"I wonder if there's any B.B. King in that jukebox."

**Author's Note:**

> Three in the morning, in someone's room, sprawled on the bed watching "Hello Buckwheat." And believe it was April Valentine who said, "What is Frank so upset about? How long has Vinnie been gone, anyway? Not long enough for him to be throwing a fit like this." And someone said, "He's in love with him, that's why he's so upset," & we started laughing & started telling Frank that the reason Vinnie was so upset was Sonny. You remember Sonny, don't you Frank, the guy who electrocuted himself in front of Vinnie? And in the back of my head, Roger started talking. This story is what he said.


End file.
